Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports

When GAME OF SHADOWS arrived on the scene, the clamor was to know about Barry Bonds and what, if any, illegal drugs he took to fuel his pursuit of Major League Baseball’s all time home run record. To a lesser degree people wanted to know why. Those questions are answered painstakingly throughout the book. In fact, the presentation of Barry Bonds in this book is so brutal, like a villain from a penny dreadful novel, that if it wasn’t true he would have sued. Truth be told, I have been a Bonds hater since he signed with the San Francisco Giants---rival to my LA Dodgers. But even I often blushed at the broad strokes of distasteful behavior that he is shown to be capable of. That, however, is the prurient part of the book. What makes show more GAME OF SHADOWS a book of historical note is the depth it plumbs into the entire performance enhancing drug culture. The book was criticized upon arrival for not being all about Barry Bonds—as if the rest of it were just padding. Bond’s outsized personality is used to shine a light on the rest of what was going on at the time. Tempting to just use the term steroids when talking about performance enhancing drugs as a short cut, most people have some sense of what those are, but the book reveals that the many different drugs used come from many different places and medical disciplines. Following the drugs from creation to distribution to use is fascinating and the extent to which they have permeated the sports world—including to a very large degree our Olympic athletes who seemingly should have held themselves to a higher standard—is astonishing. Basically an extended newspaper article, the book remains fresh and lively throughout by deftly dropping one story line for another so by the end there is the feeling of having followed the story for months and staying on top of it the whole time. Don’t be scared off if you are not a baseball fan. Or a sports fan. The book reminds us that we may think we have air tight characters, but one wrong decision and we sink like stones. show less

The BALCO steroid raid was a local headline news "event" for a number of months. I have to admit that I tuned most of it out. Around the same time as the trial I read and enjoyed The Secret Language of Baseball which among its analysis of hand signals had some chapters on previous baseball scandals. So when Game of Shadows was offered up at the local BookCrossing meeting last year, I had to give it a read.

Baseball while an entertaining sport to play and to watch is not all "Mom and apple pie" pure as some would like to believe. Heck, I'd argue that neither is "Mom and apple pie" but I digress. It's a highly competitive team sport that produces a lot more misses than hits. Those team members who can consistently hit the ball well end up show more being the stars of the sport. With stardom comes the big bucks. Baseball has a history of turning a blind eye to a lot of the underhanded things players and teams do get ahead in the game.

The BALCO thing is just the latest and most recent public example. Game of Shadows covers the people involved in the trial (owners of BALCO, the managers, the players, the investigators, and so forth). It is set up in three equal parts. The first introduces all the "players", the second piece is the events that lead up to the trial and the final third is the trial itself. The trial piece is by far the most interesting piece of the book and I wish more time had been given to it and perhaps to the investigation. show less

There are a lot of potentially interesting stories in this book -- the flamboyant BALCO founder, Victor Conte; the deeply flawed baseball star Barry Bonds; the science of steroids; the culture of steroids in sport; the activity of BALCO in the track and field world...

Sadly, Fainaru-Wada (ironic last name!) tries to tell all of them. The book ends up as an unfocused laundry list of anecdotes rather than a coherent argument or narrative. And it suffers from the same flaw as _The Price of Admission_ -- to wit, it takes for granted that its readers will feel outrage about its topic, and therefore doesn't even try to make an argument against steroid use, to consider alternate points of view, or to temper its rhetoric. Pet peeve: I hate it show more when books presume my emotional reaction to the material; it makes me cranky and contrarian. And I also hate it when books aren't coherently structured, so...two stars. It's too bad; the author's done some great research, and there are closely related books I would like a lot. show less

Outstanding journalism, ruined all my baseball myths and sunk my modern day heros, but excellent book.

Various anecdotes and bits of back-story on the infamous "steroids scandal" that rocked professional baseball in the early 21st century. The narration was very good: the reader seemed genuinely enthused about the text, and that helped to hold my interest. The book was an interesting snapshot of a time just before Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's home run record. Sadly, the drug abuse and cheating continue today.

Interesting look at the BALCO scandal. There's technical information about doping, and how some drugs covered up other drugs in testing.

There's also all the personalities involved, from track and field stars such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, to Barry Bonds. Victor Conte, the BALCO president is quite an interesting character himself.

Finally there is a great deal of ink spilled on the investigation. Who were the investigators, who profited from keeping things quiet, and what were the final outcomes.

The big loser in all of this is Bonds. He comes across as the self-absorbed, arrogant asshole we've come to know so well in the press.

There's a ton of allegations in this book and there's very few 'alledgedly' qualifications.

In fact, this (non-fiction) book had something close to an omniscient (and judgmental) narrator.

Not that I don't believe this book. It wouldn't take much convincing for me to believe Barry Bonds is an A-number-one ass.

Much of the focus of this book was on the track and field side of the doping. While that was interesting, I really enjoyed the baseball doping insights.